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Management Team:Milestone’s partners have successfully invested through multiple economic cycles and diverse market conditions. Together they possess over 90 years of investing experience at prominent firms including Apax Partners (Patricof), Allstate Insurance, Bessemer Venture Partners, Callier Interests, Lambda Funds (Drexel, Burnham, Lambert) and One Equity Partners (JP Morgan). Collectively, the team has invested in over 200 private companies, resulting in over 30 IPOs and numerous profitable M&A exits. In addition, the firm possesses significant operating experience in sales, marketing, business development, and business process consulting. Ethan D. Ayer
Mr. Ayer joined Milestone Venture Partners in 2007 following twelve years of investment experience in venture capital, buyouts and investment banking. Before joining Milestone, Mr. Ayer was a Managing Director of One Equity Partners, LLC, the $4.8 billion private equity arm of JPMorgan. At One Equity, he invested $285 million in over a dozen transactions in leading IT-enabled services, next-generation communications and information security companies; including Cybertrust, Inc. which was recently sold to Verizon Business Services. Prior to One Equity, he made early stage technology investments at two independent venture capital firms, Allegra Partners of New York, NY and Early Stage Enterprises LLC, of Princeton, NJ. At these two firms, he sourced transactions, conducted due diligence and monitored existing investments. Mr. Ayer began his career in the Structured Finance Group at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Ayer holds an AB in Economics from Harvard College and an MA from Cambridge University, UK. He has been a 3-time member of the US National Rowing team and was recently inducted into the Harvard Hall of Fame. He sits on the Board of Directors at Vercuity Solutions, Inc. and observes at Nextone Communications. He is also co-founder of the Advisory Board for Dreamyard Prep, an innovative "arts-in-education" high school in the Bronx, NY.
Richard Dumler joined Milestone Venture Partners in January 2002 following 34 years in the venture capital industry. He is actively involved in all of Milestone’s investment decisions. He represented MVP on CareGain’s board of directors until it was profitably sold to Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq: FISV). He currently sits on the boards of Knovel and Guidester, and he monitors Medium. His prior investment experience is particularly helpful in sharing insights learned from other start-ups about key marketing, operational, financial and technology decisions. Prior to joining Milestone, Mr. Dumler served for 20 years as a general partner of the Lambda Funds, which were outside investor venture capital partnerships originally sponsored by the investment-banking firm Drexel Burnham Lambert. Although Lambda invested nationally in a wide range of businesses, Mr. Dumler focused primarily on early-stage technology companies. Lambda had a number of notable successes, such as the leveraged buyout and subsequent IPO of Sungard Data Systems; follow-on investments in Kronos (Nasdaq: KRON]; and the purchase of Environetics out of bankruptcy, which later resulted in a high-multiple sale to IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (Nasdaq:IDXX). Before working with Lambda, Mr. Dumler was with Bessemer Venture Partners, which he joined as the third partner. While at Bessemer, Mr. Dumler made multiple successful technology-related investments including equity placements in Kronos, Syntrex, Micro Peripherals, and Compumotor, all of which went public or were profitably acquired. Kronos, which is now the nation’s leading provider of time and attendance software, possesses a market capitalization in excess of $1billion, and the distinction for producing more consecutive years of revenue growth and profitability than any other publicly traded software firm besides Microsoft. Mr. Dumler has been a Kronos director for 25 years. Mr. Dumler entered the venture capital business at the Allstate Insurance Company in 1968. At the time, Allstate was the largest provider of venture capital in America. Mr. Dumler made a number of successful investments in the areas of new media and technology. These investments included Actmedia, ADVO (NYSE: AD), Amdahl, Applicon, Baron Data Systems, and Four Phase Systems - each of which experienced a profitable IPO and/or were acquired at a significantly higher valuation. Mr. Dumler responded to the extraordinarily challenging economic environment of the 1970’s by developing capital efficient investment strategies. For example, he purchased for Allstate a 20% share in ADVO (at the time, a failed buyout of KKR) for $200,000 plus a $250,000 bank guarantee. He also bought approximately 12% of Actmedia, the pioneer of in-store supermarket advertising now owned by News Corp., for $500,000. Both companies are now billion dollar businesses. In 1978, Mr. Dumler was promoted to the newly formed Corporate Planning Department at Allstate’s then parent, Sears Roebuck. Mr. Dumler received a BA from Georgetown in 1964 and an MBA from the University of Michigan in 1968.
Edwin A. Goodman Mr. Goodman co-founded Milestone Venture Partners in 1999, as he was energized by the opportunities he saw being created by the Internet in the New York metropolitan area. He currently sits on the board of Medidata Solutions, Inc., SkillSurvey, Inc., and supervises MVP II’s investments in RichFX, Ltd and MVP III’s investment in M5 Networks. Prior to founding Milestone, Mr. Goodman was with the U.S. office of Hambros, a London-based merchant bank. He joined the firm in 1981 and supervised the growth of the business from $5 million of paid-in-capital to $150 million. The Hambros venture team invested in more than 100 companies in a wide variety of businesses, including computer hardware, software, healthcare, retailing, waste disposal and traditional manufacturing businesses. Some of the more visible successes that became public companies or were profitably sold include Allied Waste (NYSE: AW), Corporate Software, Komag (Nasdaq:KOMG), PCA International, Petsmart, Inc (Nasdaq: PETM), RASNA Corporation, Solectron Corporation (NYSE: SLR), Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS), Telematics, and Veeco Instruments (Nasdaq: VECO). Prior to Hambros, Mr. Goodman worked at Patricof & Co. (now Apax Partners), which he joined in 1974 as its third employee. During his seven years with the organization, he participated in all aspects of the business. The most prominent of its investments was a $250,000 commitment to the final private financing round raised by Apple Computer in the summer of 1977. From 1970 through 1973, Mr. Goodman managed WBAI FM, an educationally licensed, listener-sponsored FM radio station in NYC. Before managing WBAI, Mr. Goodman joined the Bedford Stuyvesant Development & Services Corporation in Brooklyn, NY in 1967 and became its co-chief executive. The group made SBA-guaranteed loans to dozens of small businesses to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation. Mr. Goodman started his business career by joining his family’s high-fashion retailing business, Bergdorf Goodman, in New York City. He spent five years with the firm and worked with his father on the sale of the business to Carter Hawley Hale Stores, a New York Stock Exchange company, in 1972. The Goodman family retains ownership of the land and building. In addition to these venture capital responsibilities, Mr. Goodman is a former board chair and a current life trustee of the Board of the Choate Rosemary Hall School and is Chairman of the Board of FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology), an 11,000-student college within the State University of New York system. Mr. Goodman is also a founding director of Donors Choose (www.donorschoose.org). Mr. Goodman holds a BA in English literature from Yale College in 1962 and an MS from Columbia University Business School in 1979, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.
Mr. Pietri co-founded Milestone Venture Partners with Ed Goodman in October 1999. He brings operating and investment experience to its management. Since launching MVP II in 2001, Mr. Pietri has developed expertise and relationships in the financial services IT, pharmaceutical IT, healthcare media, and outsourced business service sectors. Mr. Pietri is responsible for nine Milestone investments: BizBash Media, ExpertPlan, Navtrak, Derivatives Portfolio Management (successfully sold to Mellon Financial in February 2005), Octagon Research Solutions, GenomeQuest, Oddcast, SmartAnalyst, dLife, MedPage Today and TargetSpot. His earlier financial experience includes co-heading the Technology and Communications Investment Banking Group at Legacy Securities, where he performed a broad range of capital raising, M&A and other financial advisory services. Mr. Pietri was also a member of Legacy’s direct investment team, which provided mezzanine and growth equity through its affiliate, Legacy Capital Partners. Mr. Pietri gained valuable control and turn-around investment experience as an Associate at Callier Interests, a turn-around leveraged buy-out firm focused on middle market industrial distributors and manufacturers. Mr. Pietri’s operating experience includes direct sales, sales management, channel management, business development and business process consulting. He also possesses technical expertise in computer telephony systems and enterprise resource planning software. From 1992 to 1997, he ran IT consulting and direct sales for CompuSystems, an Atlanta-based software and services firm focused on industrial distributors and manufacturers. He and his team provided solutions for inventory control, order processing, and financial reporting. Prior to his tenure at CompuSystems, Mr. Pietri worked in the voice processing industry for Innovative Technology, Call Response Automation and his own consulting firm. Mr. Pietri received his BA (cum laude) in English from Duke University in 1989. While working full-time for CompuSystems, Mr. Pietri earned his MBA from the two year Executive MBA Program at the Robinson School of Business at Georgia State University in 1997, graduating first in his class. He is also CFA charterholder and graduate of the Venture Capital Institute Graduate Program. Mr. Pietri currently serves as a director of GenomeQuest, SmartAnalyst, MedPageToday, and BizBash Media. Avlyn Ashterman-ReeceMs. Ashterman-Reece joined Milestone in March 2001. She is responsible for Milestone’s day-to-day operations, including executive support and investor relations. Prior to joining Milestone, Ms. Ashterman-Reece worked at Morgan Stanley as a Registered Sales Assistant. Prior to Morgan Stanley, she held several positions over 10 years in the New York office of cable operator, Tele-Communications Inc. Ms. Ashterman-Reece holds a BS in Business Administration from Concordia College.
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About | Approach | Management Team | Advisory Board | Portfolio | Firm News | Contact551 Madison Avenue, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022 V: [212] 223 7400 F: [212] 223 0315 |
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